POWER

ing, took a firmer hold on the ministerial offices, in-
cluding the war office. As for Roux, having asked for
the Terror, he saw it applied to himself and his fol-
lowers. He eventually committed suicide in jail.

The two Hebertists Billaud-Varenne and Collot
d'Herbois, who had become members of the Com-
mittee of Public Safety, belonged to Hebert's camp only
in the sense that they believed in an exaggerated use of
the Terror and in some other measures he favoured.
They in no way recognized him as their leader.
Billaud-Varenne was a teacher and author. He was de-
void of charity and blinded by personal ambition, but,
on the whole, true to his principles and ready to suffer
for them. Collot d'Herbois was an actor and play-
wright. He was a vain and violent man with a taste for
strong drink. He possessed courage and ability, but
his name is for ever sullied by the cruelties he per-
petrated in Lyon.

VI

Robespierre's government had hardly recovered
from the attack launched by Hebert, when it had to
sustain another launched by Danton.

After the insurrection of the 2nd of June, Danton
had found himself seriously compromised. He had been
a member of the Committee of Public Safety—the
Danton Committee—elected soon after Dumouriez'
treason. When after the fall of the Girondins that com-
mittee was reorganized, Danton was dropped. His
revolutionary ardour had been called into question at
the Jacobin and Cordelier Clubs. Strange rumours were
abroad regarding the source of his prosperity. Doubt
had been cast in open Convention upon his personal
honesty. He sulked and went into eclipse. But he was
hardly the man to remain in that state indefinitely. On

245 R